On Friday morning, September 18, 2015, the third grade classes at the Beverly J. Martin School in Ithaca, NY, heard a presentation on “human rights” by Palestinian activist Bassem Tamimi and local anti-Israel activists, led by Ariel Gold. In fact,...the Tamimi event was an anti-Israel propaganda event targeting young children, and as we just learned, caused at least one student to suffer nightmares.... Initially, the principal of the elementary school, Susan Eschbach, also attempted to downplay the significance of the Tamimi event. In a September 22, 2015, statement to the school community Eschbach denied there was anything improper... The statement...

Despair over Clinton's loss prompts ‘cry-in’ at Cornell; Play-Doh for the distraught Dozens of students at Cornell University gathered on a major campus thoroughfare for a “cry-in” to mourn the results of the 2016 presidential election Wednesday, with school staff providing tissues and hot chocolate. At Tufts University, arts and crafts were on offer. And the University of Kansas reminded students via social media of the therapy dogs available for comfort every other Wednesday. Colleges nationwide scrambled to help students process Republican Donald Trump’s stunning election victory. They’re acknowledging that many students were up late watching results and so may...

<p>ITHACA--Responding to Donald Trump’s shocking presidential victory, several Cornell professors across departments cancelled class Wednesday, citing personal distress and concern for students’ emotional well-being.</p>
<p>Prof. Jane-Marie Law, Asian, Near Eastern and religious studies, said she cancelled her “Introduction to Japan and Religion” lecture, because she was “so upset and worried I would break down, thinking about how dangerous the move the American electorate — half of them — made last night is.”</p>

The Cornell Daily Sun reports that students hosted a “Cry In” on the quad Wednesday in the wake of the presidential election results. “I’m quite terrified, honestly,” one student told the campus newspaper as she took part in the event. “It’s saying that people are really given into fear-mongering. They are willing to put people down based on their identity just so that they would feel vindicated that they would be getting rid of ‘Crooked Hillary.'” Another participant told the Sun many are in “shock” as she sipped on a Starbucks coffee cup, sitting cross-legged in the institution’s Ho Plaza....

As midnight approached and a series of swing states turned red...Cornellians expressed horror that Donald Trump could actually become president. “How the **** is he winning? What the ****?” said a student early on in the night... as Trump took the state of Ohio. “We should’ve died in 2012 while we still had the chance,” added Mitch Laski, echoing several students who said they fear a Trump presidency will be the end of equal rights for minorities and free speech in the United States. Shayra Kamal said she is genuinely concerned about her future in the United States. “I’m looking...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Tompkins County Democratic Victory Party in downtown Ithaca feels like a "morgue" as less than half a dozen people remain to watch the numbers of the presidential election roll in. One Democrat who left early said the room felt like a "morgue". Democrat Matt Van Houten, the newly elected District Attorney said, "I don't know what to say...I had thought that Hillary was a lock." He said he never remembers feeling this kind of dread on the eve of a national election before. The closest thing he can recall is when George W. Bush and Al...

We know you will be surprised to hear that Ithaca has been named among the “best cities for liberals” in the United States, according to a new ranking by Livability. The results cite Ithaca’s influence on Tompkins County, where 70% of voters supported President Obama in 2012 and Senator Bernie Sanders took a lead in this year’s presidential primary. Livability also points out that the City of Ithaca hasn’t elected a Republican mayor “since the mid 1980s.” (It’s actually been longer; Bill Shaw, the last Republican mayor, was elected in 1981 and served a two-year term before being succeeded by...

Cornell students passed a student-sponsored referendum to provide free tampons and pads in all Cornell bathrooms, with 78.6 percent of 3,034 voting students casting a ballot in favor. The "#FreetheTampon" initiative aims to provide all bathrooms on campus of both genders—yes, men’s too—with free menstrual products throughout the year, and comes shortly after Brown University recently implemented a similar program.

Cornell University Football Coach Roy Istvan apologized to students who were offended by an image he tweeted: an image of two of his players wearing sombreros. Why were they wearing sombreros? Istvan awards the big hat to the player or players who best represented team spirit on the field after a game. This practice has displeased some members of MEChA de Cornell, a Mexican student group. "They're appropriating a culture that isn't theirs and using it as a joke," wrote one student on MEChA's Facebook page, according to Campus Reform. "It's disgusting and I'm ashamed that you can't see that."...

Cornell is hiring a dean of students whose job it will be to promote diversity on campus... So far, though, the interview process isn’t going particularly well for one top candidate, Vijay Pendakur...he dared to say that he’d consider all students when making decisions as the dean of students. “If I say, ‘The dean’s area of focus is diversity and inclusion,’ the unspoken thought in response often is, ‘Oh, so he’s here for only the marginalized students,'” he told the crowd. “So we need to undo that, because that is a deeply problematic framework. If we’re going to make progress,...

Now in Newsweek, Cornell Law School professor Sherry F. Colb uses the Zika tragedy to promote infanticide. From, “Is Terminating a Late-Term Zika Fetus Euthanasia:” As a moral matter, some might want to argue that the lives of infants may be so compromised by defects, as would be the case for many of these babies, that killing them painlessly at birth would be a kindness rather than a harm. At this point in time, though, laws in the U.S. do not recognize euthanasia as a legitimate approach to an infant (or an adult) whose life might not be considered worthwhile,...

Cornell University College Republicans announced this afternoon that they will endorse Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson for president, in a statement that acknowledged the wide spectrum of conservative beliefs that compose the club. “Our organization does not solely represent the Republican Party,” the statement said, “Our first responsibility is to our members.” Club leadership stressed that Cornell Republicans are “libertarians, moderates, neoconservatives and everyone in between.” In an “unprecedented” election year, campus Republicans say they could not tolerate Donald Trump as their party’s nominee. “Mr. Trump should not be the face of American conservatism,” the club’s statement reads, proceeding to call...

The Asian American Coalition for Education lodged a complaint with Department of Education last Wednesday, accusing Cornell and Columbia University of discriminating against an Asian student in the admissions process. The complaint, filed within the Office of Civil Rights, claims that Hubert Zhao ...was unjustly denied admission to both schools last year. Zhao is an “outstanding student with excellent academic and extracurricular achievements,” a 5.3 GPA and high PSAT and SAT scores, according to the AACE website. He and an Indian American classmate were the only students in their 700-person class who qualified as National Merit semifinalists. While other students...

Ithaca College flies to the top of the "Reefer Madness" list in the Princeton Review. College students answered the survey question, "How widely is marijuana used at your school?" to determine the rankings. Ithaca College, home to 6,323 undergraduate students, shares the small town of Ithaca with Cornell University within the Finger Lakes region. Besides the "reefer madness" list, Ithaca College also made lists for the "Best College Newspaper," the "Most Liberal Students" and "Little Race/Class Interaction" among others.

(CNN) — One Ithaca College student was killed and another was injured after being stabbed during a "large fight" on the nearby Cornell University campus early Sunday in Ithaca, New York, officials from both schools said. Cornell University Police were called to the intersection in front of Olin Hall, which houses Cornell's school of chemical and biomolecular engineering, just before 2 a.m. There, they found two men had been stabbed, according to a police news release.

ITHACA, NY - When Christopher Dunn joined Cornell Plantations as its new director in April 2014, his freshly printed business cards suggested to him the organization he was set to lead had an identity problem. Even within the Cornell community, Dunn discovered the name left many perplexed. While other places on campus have easily identifiable descriptors – a library and museum have definite, universal connotations – Plantations had no such grounding for potential visitors. And for many others, there was an emotional response: Plantations conjured negative associations with America’s history of slavery and racial oppression. Dunn also communicated with Black...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Ithaca was shockingly named the Most Hippie Town in New York in an article published by Thrillist last week. The list -- which includes classically hippie towns such as: Homer, Alaska; Santa Cruz, California; Athens, Georgia; and Asheville, North Carolina -- was written by Matt Meltzer. He wrote, "Thought we'd go Woodstock, did ya? Well, aside from being home to the mud-soaked music fest on Yasgur's farm, it's really become more of a hippie tourist trap than an actual town. Ithaca, however, has THE WORLD'S LARGEST FREAKING PEACE SIGN."

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A man accused of sexually abusing two young children was taken into custody less than 25 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Saturday, two days before his trial was set to begin in Ithaca. Ever Benites, 36, who was out on bail after being charged with multiple felonies for abusing two children over several years, was taken into custody at a travel center in Edinburg, Texas.... The final destination of the bus, operated by Tornado Bus Company, was Brownsville, Texas, a city directly bordering Mexico. Benites, who was released on $20,000 cash bail or $40,000...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- This weekend Ithaca Police will have extra officers patrolling the streets on the lookout for unsafe and intolerable activity - in particular, violations committed by pedestrians. Police say extra officers will be on patrol from July 22 to July 25 during various hours of the day and night. A release by police advises that "officers will utilize a zero tolerance approach for all violations observed." The department says the goal is to increase pedestrian safety on Ithaca's streets, sidewalks and crosswalks.

In January, 2016...an Ithaca (NY) Black Lives Matter rally over the death of Sandra Bland and others set up a procedure to segregate speakers by race, with “people of color” being given priority over whites... The segregation of speakers just happened again, at a rally on July 8, 2016, with non-people of color speakers told to sit at the back of the speakers’ line... About 400 people marched from the Southside Community Center to the Ithaca Commons Friday night and called for an end to systemic racism and police killing black people. [Black Lives Matter Ithaca organizer Dubian] Ade addressed...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A man snatched about $700 from a Maine-based ice cream vendor who was selling at the Ithaca Festival for the first time on Saturday. Robert and Jane Walters were selling ice cream around 5:30 p.m. on the 130 block of West State Street when the incident happened. The two have run the Island Cow Ice Cream Co. for the past 20 years out of Boothbay Harbor, Maine and usually sell ice cream along the east coast during the summer. Robert Walters said he was separating the bills in a basket he places money in and began talking...

It is a presidential election year, but do not expect that candidates will come a-wooing to Ithaca this fall. For decades, ours has been a reliably Democratic city in a reliably Democratic state.... The joke has always been that Ithaca is “centrally isolated.” We are not really on the way to anywhere else, and candidates in the heat of battle put their time and money into swing communities in swing counties in swing states. It was not always so, though, and Ithaca has seen its share of supplicants over the years. Presidential election campaigning—as we have known it since the...

Ithaca College President Thomas Rochon will step down next year over his failure to respond to racially sensitive issues in the appropriate manner. The decision came after much personal introspection, according to Rochon, after the faculty and students separately voted no confidence in his leadership in a vote that was inexplicably conducted via Survey Monkey, an unscientific method of deciphering opinion. Ithaca is a private college of around 7,000 students. According to news reports, faculty complained “he didn’t listen to anyone, he made decisions without input and he seemed to be following a business model rather than being concerned with...

Ithaca College President Thomas Rochon will step down next year over his failure to respond to racially sensitive issues in the appropriate manner. The decision came after much personal introspection, according to Rochon, after the faculty and students separately voted no confidence in his leadership in a vote that was inexplicably conducted via Survey Monkey, an unscientific method of deciphering opinion. In October 2015, on an alumni association panel one panelist, 1992 alumnus Tatiani Sy, said she had a “savage hunger” to learn and be professionally successful. A white 1976 alumnus participating, Christopher Burch, complimented Sy’s thirst for knowledge by...

The City of Ithaca’s zip code, 14850, ranks eighth on the list of United States zip codes giving most generously to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (D-Vt.) presidential campaign, according to a USA Today report based on Federal Election Commission data through Jan. 31. This generosity is largely due to grassroots efforts, Ithaca’s liberal nature and unprecedented enthusiasm from residents, according to local activists.... Members of the Ithaca and Tompkins County for Bernie Sanders Campaign, as well as the Ithaca branch of the Democratic Socialists of America for Bernie Sanders Campaign, said levels of local activism were partially responsible for Ithaca’s large...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- In a stairway located 107 seconds away from Dewitt Park in downtown Ithaca, used heroin needles and condoms littered the secluded steps Monday morning -- the same as every morning. That ... is exactly the kind of thing officials hope to prevent with the radical new measures proposed in The Ithaca Plan... essentially allowing addicts to get free heroin and shoot up in a safe, clean locations... Mayor Svante Myrick -- who founded a drug task force to research the heroin epidemic happening in Ithaca two years ago -- is an advocate... In short, heroin assisted therapy...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A Cornell student is suing New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman after claiming that the legal drinking age of 21 makes him feel "ostracized and excluded" from other graduate students. The action was filed by Matthew Uhalde Wednesday at the Tompkins County Court. According to the documents, Uhalde claims to have graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science degree and was admitted to a graduate program at Cornell University in fall 2015, at the age of 19. Uhalde says that because nearly all unofficial graduate school activities involve alcohol, he is not able to have a...

ITHACA, NY - Tuesday morning, Mayor Svante Myrick wrote a Facebook post pledging to welcome Syrian refugees to Ithaca. Myrick said, "I'll do everything in my power to welcome Syrian refugees to Ithaca. We must guard against terrorism, and if they have no place to go these refugees are the most likely to be victims of terrorist acts." Accompanying the post was a poll conducted by Fortune Magazine in 1938 and republished in The Washington Post this morning. The poll displays American's opinions toward refugees displaced during World War II in 1938. The poll showed that Americans were overwhelming against...

ITHACA, NY -- Hundreds of Ithaca College students and supporters gathered at the center of campus Wednesday to demand the resignation of college president Tom Rochon and an overhaul of the structures at the campus that they said make students of color feel unsafe and excluded. The protest, which began around 1:30 p.m. and attracted at least 750 people, was in response to what organizers said were a series of incidents that demonstrated cultural insensitivity and exclusion of certain groups.

Video from investigative journalism outfit Project Veritas (PV) released Thursday morning shows a Cornell administrator shredding a copy of the U.S. Constitution after a PV journalist posing as a student told the administrator the document is triggering. Elizabeth McGrath, Cornellâ€™s Lead Title IX Investigator, is seen in the video feeding pages from a pocket-size Constitution through a paper shredder after the undercover journalist says it would be therapy for her. McGrath asks the journalist if she would like to participate, an offer she declines. I have my own personal reasons why the Constitution is very triggering for me, the PV...

Cornell University is defending its decision to remove a Fox News Channel reporter from campus after he asked questions about "liberal bias." The … college made national news Monday when host Bill O'Reilly sent … reporter Jesse Watters to investigate a report that claims 96 percent of political donations from faculty over the past four years went to Democratic candidates. The … segment asked students if they thought there was a liberal "indoctrination" on the Ithaca campus, but was interrupted by Cornell's deputy director of media relations Melissa Osgood asking them to leave. Neither Osgood nor John Carberry, the Ivy...

A Central New York college is under fire for kicking Fox News Channel off campus after questions about the school's alleged "liberal bias." Bill O'Reilly spoke Monday night about a recent Cornell Sun newspaper report that claimed 96 percent of the more than $600,000 in political donations from Cornell University faculty went to Democratic candidates. Only 15 of 323 donors gave money to "conservative" politicians, the Fox News host said. O'Reilly complained that it didn't seem diverse enough, so he sent "O'Reilly Factor" producer and reporter Jesse Watters to ask professors and students if they thought there was a liberal...

Of the nearly $600,000 Cornell’s faculty donated to political candidates or parties in the past four years, over 96 percent has gone to fund Democratic campaigns, while only 15 of the 323 donors gave to conservative causes. The Sun’s analysis of Federal Election Committee data reveals that from 2011 to 2014, Cornell’s faculty donated $573,659 to Democrats, $16,360 to Republicans and $2,950 to Independents. Each of Cornell’s 13 schools — both graduate and undergraduate — slanted heavily to the left. In the College of Arts and Sciences, 99 percent of the $183,644 donated went to liberal campaigns. The law school...

ITHACA, N.Y. — Kurt A. Jordan, associate professor in Cornell University’s department of anthropology and Native American studies, has found evidence through his research that suggests several parts of Ithaca lies above ancient burial grounds of Haudenosaunee Indians. Jordan said his finding are based on a “paper trail” of books and documents, some dating centuries ago, because he didn’t have the permission to excavate in Ithaca.

ITHACA, N.Y. — A 20-month waiting period for a pistol permit in Tompkins County is too long to wait for a gun and doesn't keep anybody safer. That's how long it will take me — a person with no criminal history and no mental illnesses — to get a permit. I probably come to the table with a perspective different than most New Yorkers. I'm a Texas girl from a primarily conservative family who considers going to a gun range and grabbing lunch a wonderfully spent Saturday with my relatives. I don't think my background, however, changes the fact that...

Ithaca, N.Y. — A new study claims to track differing levels of racism across the United States by using Google search data. The results are not so good for the area that includes Ithaca. Large swaths of Western New York and the Southern Tier, according to the researchers, are far likelier than other regions of the country to input racist search terms into Google. That means the areas are more likely to be racist, according to the researchers, who tie the results to black mortality rates across the country. The study, published in PLOS One by data scientist Stephens-Davidowitz, was...

This guy is either the dumbest Ivy League bigwig ever or politically correct to a fault — for welcoming offers to bring ISIS and Hamas to Cornell University. A video sting operation shows Cornell’s assistant dean for students, Joseph Scaffido, agreeing to everything suggested by an undercover muckraker posing as a Moroccan student. Scaffido casually endorses inviting an ISIS “freedom fighter’’ to conduct a “training camp” for students at the upstate Ithaca campus — bizarrely likening the activity to a sports camp. Is it OK to bring a humanitarian pro-“Islamic State Iraq and Syria” group on campus, the undercover for...

Ithaca, N.Y. — Despite the efforts of local officials, vaccination rates for some Ithaca schools are significantly lower than both the New York State and national averages. How at risk is Ithaca? There are no reported cases here, but state statistics show that some Ithaca area schools have vaccination rates for measles as low as 72 percent — compared to the average rate of 95 percent for the state at large. The 95 percent figure is key, because it’s the rate at which an “effective herd immunity” is established to prevent the spread of a disease like measles Ithaca [is]...

AARP is calling out (Democrat congressional candidate Martha) Robertson for improperly using AARP’s name in her ads, violating AARPs non-partisan status and falsely implying that AARP has taken sides in the race.... Beth Finkel, state director for AARP in New York, issued a statement after learning of its name and logo appearing in the Ithaca Democrat’s campaign ads in the race for the 23rd Congressional District seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning. “AARP does not endorse candidates or make contributions to political campaigns or candidates,” Finkel said. “AARP did not authorize the use of its name or...

Ithaca, N.Y. — Leaflets calling a conservative columnist for the Cornell Daily Sun a “Racist Rape Apologist” have been anonymously distributed around campus. Julius Kairey, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences and author of a biweekly Sun column titled, “Always Right,” recently wrote a column about sexual assault that drew rebuttals. The circulated leaflets show a photo of Kairey. Under the photo, the words, “Daily Sun Columnist and Racist Rape Apologist” appear. No other text, no specifics supporting the allegations, are printed on the page.... The most recent Kairey column takes issue with a new California law...

<p>A male victim was sexually assaulted at Ithaca College shortly after midnight on Sunday, according to the IC Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management.</p>
<p>The attack occurred around 12:10 a.m. Sunday on the walking trail behind Wood Field between Circle Apartments and the Terraces, a statement from IC said.</p>

A grandmother of three was sentenced to one year at the Onondaga County jail Thursday in DeWitt Town Court after she was found guilty of violating an order of protection while protesting at Hancock Air Base. Mary Anne Grady-Flores, 58, of Ithaca, was charged with second-degree criminal contempt on Feb. 13, 2013 after an order of protection was issued, barring Grady-Flores from going near Col. Earl Evans, the mission support group commander at the 174th Attack Wing of the New York Air National Guard, on Oct. 25, 2012. The protection order was valid for one year... She went to trial...

Thursday night was no celebration for Ithaca Police, who responded to multiple reports of violence throughout the city. At around 12:06 a.m. Friday, Ithaca Police responded to a report of a 25-year-old Ithaca man who was severely beaten with a baseball bat in the city.... At around 12:15 a.m. that same night, police were called to the Holiday Inn on Cayuga Street to respond to a physical dispute... Later that night, just after 1:30 a.m., Ithaca Police got a report of shots fired in the 600 block of Chestnut Street. Police say two people were driving when a person shot...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A motorist who pulled into an Ithaca parking lot when he got lost this morning told police he had his vehicle carjacked at gunpoint. The victim said he pulled into the parking lot in the 200 block of West State Street shortly before 2 a.m. when a woman appeared at the driver's side window of his SUV and pointed a handgun at him, Ithaca police said. The woman had gotten the victim's attention by knocking on his window with what he believed was the gun, although he was not looking up at the time, police Officer Jamie...

<p>Last week, the University announced Eduardo Peñalver will serve as the next dean of Cornell Law School. Over 20 years ago, however, University administrators were considering suspending Peñalver.</p>
<p>In November 1993, Peñalver was a leader of a four-day occupation of Day Hall, which resulted in two reported confrontations with Cornell police, The Sun previously reported.</p>

The fate of the Executive Assistant of the City of Ithaca Planning and Development department is unknown, following charges she stole money from a Trumansburg baseball organization. Debbie Grunder, a 48-year-old Lansing resident, pleaded not guilty Monday to stealing $6,350 as treasurer of the Trumansburg Travel Baseball, a nonprofit summer league for players between 9 and 15. League Commissioner Jeff Ives said the organization’s budget is less than $5,000, according to the Ithaca Journal. Trumansburg police have charged Grunder with grand larceny and falsifying business records while treasurer of the organization. According to Trumansburg Police Chief Thomas Ferretti, Grunder paid...

Ithaca, N.Y. — The former President of the Ithaca Education Support Professionals Union has been arrested for allegedly stealing money from members. Laureen F. Hamilton, 52, admitted to Ithaca police she took around $7,000 without authorization from the union coffers in 2013. According to the City of Ithaca Police Department, Hamilton, a resident of Cayuta, NY, was charged with third-degree grand larceny. In a statement, police said they were first alerted to the matter on January 17. Investigators later interviewed Hamilton, who admitted she took the money while president of the union. When the crime happened, Hamilton was President of...

Ithaca, N.Y. — Were Cornell University gender researchers punked by their teen subjects? That’s one of the conclusions made by the Ivy League school about a landmark study of adolescent sexuality. The research, done in the 1990s, found five to seven percent of high schoolers professed being homosexual or bisexual. The figure was many times that of previous estimates of about one percent of adolescents. However, follow-up interviews found 70 percent of the adolescents that self-reported being gay or bisexual later described themselves a heterosexual. “How could it be that 5 to 7 percent of our youth were homosexual or...

In Ithaca New York, last Saturday night four black females jumped a white female in a racially driven attack. One of the black attackers took out a razor blade and cut the victim so badly she needed 47 stitches to her face. The cut runs from her hairline to her chin. Four black female suspects were arrested. However, post-attack the story worsens. The media has completely censored the crime; and even the local media will not report on the attack due to the horrific nature of the crime cast against the sensitivity toward what the crime represents.